You hear the story
of the horrors done to my body,
and you say,“We aren’t all like that, you know. Let me show you how gentle my hands are.”

It’s not your fault, you say,
that your teeth
are the same shape
as his teeth.

But I was swallowed whole
and they asked what I was wearing.

I was swallowed whole
and they said,“That’s what happens
to little girls who climb in bed with monsters.”

There are mornings
when my own bedroom
looks exactly like the middle of the woods.

I’m not calling you dangerous.
I’m just making sure you understand the moral of the story.
This has nothing to do with the threat of strangers in the forest.
The moral of the story is,
I will gut you if I need to.
I will carve my way out
with only my teeth.